Google+
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Type of site
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Social networking service Identity service |
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| Available in | Multilingual |
| Founded | June 15, 2011 |
| Area served | Worldwide (2011–present) |
| Owner | |
| Key people |
Larry Page - (Co-founder) Sergey Brin - (Co-founder) Bradley Horowitz - (Vice President Product) |
| Industry | Internet |
| Slogan(s) | Get way into what you love |
| Website | plus |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Required |
| Users | 111 million active users |
| Launched | June 15, 2011, replaced Google Buzz |
| Current status | Active |
| Written in | Java and JavaScript |
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Google+ (pronounced and sometimes written as Google Plus) is an interest-based social network that is owned and operated by Google.
The service, Google's fourth foray into social networking, experienced strong growth in its initial years, although usage statistics have varied, depending on how the service is defined. Three Google executives have overseen the service, which has undergone substantial changes leading to a redesign in November 2015.
Google+ is the company's fourth foray into social networking, following Google Buzz (launched 2010, retired in 2011), Google Friend Connect (launched 2008, retired by March 1, 2012), and Orkut (launched in 2004, as of 2013[update] operated entirely by subsidiary Google Brazil – retired in September 2014).
Google+ launched in June 2011. Features included the ability to post photos and status updates to the stream or interest based communities, group different types of relationships (rather than simply "friends") into Circles, a multi-person instant messaging, text and video chat called Hangouts, events, location tagging, and the ability to edit and upload photos to private cloud-based albums.
According to a 2016 book by a former Facebook employee, some leaders at Facebook saw Google's foray into social networking as a serious threat to the company. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg instituted a company-wide "lockdown", signaling that employees were supposed to dedicate time to bringing Facebook's features into line with Google+.
Assessments of Google+ growth have varied widely because Google first defined the service as a social network, then later as "a social layer across all of Google's services", allowing them to share a user's identity and interests. According to Ars Technica, Google+ signups were "often just an incidental byproduct of signing up for other Google services." Consequently, the reported number of active users on Google+ grew significantly, but the average time those users spent on the site was a small fraction of that on comparable social media services.
In 2011 Google+ reached 10 million users just two weeks after the launch. In a month, it reached 25 million. In October 2011, the service reached 40 million users, according to Larry Page. Based on ComScore, the biggest market was the United States followed by India. By the end of the year Google+ had 90 million users. In October 2013, approximately 540 million monthly active users made use of the social layer by interacting with Google+'s enhanced properties, like Gmail, +1 button, and YouTube comments. Some 300 million monthly active users participated in the social network by interacting with the Google+ social networking stream.
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Wikipedia